Geeks With Guns » parks

Gun Ban Repeal Bill Introduced In House

donttreadonme — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:04:59 +0000

Gun Owners of America is working with several members of Congress to repeal a gun ban on land controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Currently, guns are prohibited on Corps land, even when firearms possession is otherwise allowed by state law. Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH) introduced legislation—the Recreational Lands Self-Defense Act (H.R. 1865)—to allow state law to govern firearms possession.

You may recall that in July, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) offered similar language as an amendment to an appropriations bill. Gosar’s amendment passed the House on a voice vote, but its fate is uncertain as it heads to the Senate.

The Gibbs bill, as well as the Gosar amendment, is modeled after a similar measure that became law in 2009 affecting National Park Service land. Army Corps of Engineers land was not part of that bill, something the Corps was quick to point out after that law took affect.

The Corps said, in a statement: “Public Law 111-024 does not apply to Corps projects of facilities . . . [and the Army Corps] will continue to prohibit loaded concealed weapons on Corps properties regardless of the new law and notwithstanding any contrary provisions of state law.”

Rep. Gibbs’ bill will reverse the Corps’ decision.

“The Recreational Lands Self-Defense Act is a bipartisan effort to restore Second Amendment rights to law-abiding citizens while they are legally camping, hunting, and fishing on the 11.7 million acres of Army Corps recreational property,” Gibbs said. “Families and sportsmen taking advantage of this federal land should not have to worry that their legally obtained concealed weapon permit is invalid.”-[source]

Open Or CCW? Wisconsin Gun Owners Decide

donttreadonme — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:25:21 +0000

When Wisconsin’s law allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons goes into effect, Shawn Winrich is likely to take advantage of it. But if he does, he’ll do it grudgingly.

Winrich, a 34-year-old Madison resident and a member of the gun rights group Wisconsin Carry, likes to carry his Glock 17. He’s done it openly for about a year, but he doesn’t like the idea of paying a permit fee to carry it concealed.

“The bill is somewhat reasonable,” says Winrich. “But it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a violation of the constitutional rights that are secured by the state Constitution, which says (you can carry firearms for) ‘any lawful purpose’ and the U.S. Constitution says ‘these rights shall not be infringed.’ But yet the state still thinks it can regulate and impose a tax on guns. And that’s just not right.”

The law is not ideal in the eyes of the National Rifle Association and other gun groups, either.-[source]

FED SUIT END WONT AFFECT SAF/SEATTLE SUIT

donttreadonme — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:21:09 +0000

Thursday’s announcement by a Kent, WA attorney that he has ended his federal lawsuit against the City of Seattle’s parks gun ban does not affect the on-going state-court case filed jointly by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association.

SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb noted Friday morning that there has been some confusion about the two cases. SAF and NRA were joined by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the Washington Arms Collectors and five individual plaintiffs in their lawsuit, which found the city’s parks gun ban to be in violation of state law. That case has been appealed by the city.

“The federal case, as plaintiff Bob Warden noted in his statement, has never been connected to our case,” Gottlieb clarified. “The SAF/NRA case, which was filed first and has already won in King County Superior Court, remains very much alive and we are confident that we will prevail in the state court of appeals. -[source]

GUN LIMITS LIFTED IN ARIZONA

donttreadonme — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:33:15 +0000

by Alan Korwin

Arizona, which has single-handedly rocked the national dialog on the immigration debate, has done it again — this time for guns.

On the same day that portions of Arizona’s controversial immigration bill SB1070 took effect, July 29, 2010, the Grand Canyon state implemented its new Constitutional Carry law.

Under this groundbreaking new act (SB1108), any law-abiding adult in the state — not just residents — can carry a firearm discreetly without a government permit or red tape.
A statewide billboard and advertising campaign launches this summer, promoting marksmanship, firearm training and responsible legal gun use for every person in Arizona.

Arizona is rekindling the idea of a nation of marksmen.-[source]

Increased Bear Attacks Confirms Need For Guns In Parks

donttreadonme — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:08:45 +0000

The political effort leading to adoption last year of a new statute allowing defensive firearms to be carried in national parks got a major affirmation – albeit tragic – Wednesday morning when a bear rampaged through a campground near Yellowstone National Park, killing one person and injuring two other campers.

One can probably knock on wood that this did not happen in one of Washington’s three national parks, which are currently at the height of the tourist season and they are loaded with campers who may not understand “bear country etiquette.”

This attack occurred at Soda Butte campground in Montana’s Gallatin National Forest, just northeast of the park. That it did not happen inside the park may be a technicality, since the last time anyone checked, bears do not read maps, operate GPS units or really care where they were when they did something. One woman reportedly suffered severe lacerations on her arms, and a second man was bitten on the leg.-[source]

Federal Suit Over Nevada’s State Parks Gun Ban

donttreadonme — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:07:11 +0000

A Colorado legal foundation has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Nevada’s law that generally bans the possession of loaded guns in state parks.

Attorneys for the Mountain States Legal Foundation in Denver, along with Elko attorney Robert Salyer, filed suit in U.S. District Court for Nevada this week in behalf of Al Baker, an Idaho outdoorsman who said he was threatened with six months’ jail time if he fired his gun in Nevada state parks — even in self defense.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling that the Second Amendment applies to the states via the 14th Amendment makes it clear that the Nevada law is unconstitutional and must be stricken,” William Perry Pendley, president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

A spokesman for the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, parent agency of the Nevada Division of State Parks, said the agency hadn’t seen the suit and had no immediate comment on it. State parks in the Las Vegas area are the Valley of Fire, Spring Mountain Ranch and Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort.

The Mountain States Legal Foundations says it is a nonprofit, public interest law firm dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government and economic freedom.

In announcing the Idaho lawsuit, Pendley cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 28 ruling striking down a Chicago ordinance banning handgun ownership and finding “the right to keep and bear arms [is] among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty.”-[source]

‘Aggressive’ Deer Sparks 1st Glacier Gun Incident

donttreadonme — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:53:47 +0000

Glacier National Park has had its first incident of a gun being fired inside the Park boundaries since carrying them was legalized.

On June 12, a woman was hiking on the Going-to-the-Sun Road near Logan Creek when she encountered what she claimed was an aggressive whitetail deer, said Park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt.

The deer continued to her approach her and initially she discharged pepper spray toward the animal but was apparently too far away.
Then she pulled out a .357 magnum handgun and fired it into the ground away from the animal to scare it away. The deer hopped into the bushes, but still stayed fairly close.

Deer in Glacier are attracted to salt, including sweat from humans that gets on clothing and packs.

The woman later reported the incident to a ranger. She was not cited, but was given a written warning. Discharging a firearm in the Park is illegal unless a person could expect “imminent” danger.
-[source]

National park gun ban to end soon

donttreadonme — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:56:00 +0000

New rules will allow visitors to Zion National Park to carry semiautomatic rifles as they hike Angel’s Landing.

Shotguns can accompany campers’ Coleman stoves on Dinosaur National Monument’s Split Mountain beach. Want your pistol on your hip while pitching a tent at Bryce Canyon National Park’s Sunset Campground? No problem, as long as you don’t actually pull the trigger.

On Feb. 22, the long-standing ban on guns in national parks and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service-administered wildlife refuges will lift, thanks to an amendment Congress attached last year to a credit-card reform bill. The add-on requires parks and refuges to conform to state gun-carry laws.-[source]